The present invention relates to anti-recoil devices for guns and mortars and more precisely to anti-recoil devices which comprise a recoil brake and, associated with that brake, a compensator and a recuperator.
It is known to reduce the effects of the recoil of a gun or a mortar by means of a recoil brake. It is known to adjoin a compensator and a recuperator to the recoil brake: the German patent DE 103 975 of Aug. 18, 1898 proposes an anti-recoil device wherein a brake equipped with a compensator functions, in addition to functioning as a brake, as a recuperator.
The device according to this, patent can be described as being an anti-recoil device which comprises a recoil brake serving as a recuperator and a compensator coupled to the brake by a duct, the brake comprising a principal cavity, a principal piston pierced with holes and a principal rod with one end integral with the piston and one end outside of the cavity, the piston forming an imperfect barrier which subdivides the cavity into a small chamber inside of which the rod passes and a big chamber, the compensator comprising a subsidiary cavity, a subsidiary fluid-tight piston to delimit a subsidiary chamber inside the subsidiary cavity, and a return system which acts on the subsidiary piston in such a way as to tend to reduce the volume of the subsidiary chamber, the device having its principal cavity and its subsidiary chamber filled with liquid, the duct interconnecting the small chamber and the subsidiary chamber and the system being provided in order to be used with the small chamber which increases in volume during the recoil.
In the device according to the patent DE 103 975, in order that the speed of displacement of the principal piston may be braked during the return to the firing position, the subsidiary chamber is not directly connected with the duct but via channels pierced in a fixed piston; the subsidiary piston slides between the fixed piston which it surrounds and the lateral walls of the subsidiary cavity which surrounds it; the speed reduction is obtained by means of valves which close, but only partially, the channels during the return.
The assembly formed by the subsidiary piston and the fixed piston with its channels and its valve is complicated to produce, costly and relatively fragile.
The purpose of the present invention is to avoid these disadvantages.
This purpose is achieved, in particular, by mounting the valve on the principal piston of an anti-recoil device such as defined in claim 1.